Ephesians Chapter 1:1-14 1-2, Paul's Greeting: Paul is writing to God's people and greets them with grace

and peace. 1. Paul says he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. He is a special messenger commissioned by Jesus. This was by the will of God. It was God's purpose/intent for him to be this. 2. Paul writes to God's people. Those who have been set apart by God for Himself. They are the ones who are faithful/trusting in Jesus. 3. Paul gives grace and peace to them. This is from God and Jesus. Lord expresses authority and Father expresses authority/care. 3, Paul's Praise to God: All of vs3-14 are actually 1 sentence in Greek. Paul is overcome because of God's mighty power in Christ which has blessed us greatly! It is like he is singing out in praise and he is asking us to praise God with him. Paul in vs3 gives an exhortation and a reason. 1. The exhortation is that God would be praised/blessed by these People. 2. The reason is because God has blessed us. 1. Paul wants us to bless the God who has blessed us. 3. Paul describes these blessings as every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. These blessings go beyond any earthly blessing that God has given us. These blessings are heavenly matters. 4. Paul tells us that we have received all of these blessings in Christ. To understand this phrase in Christ, imagine a circle. It is only in this circle that you receive these blessings. All of these spiritual blessings come to us in the circle of Christ, or you could say in the sphere of Christ. 1. These blessings have come to us through God's mighty power in Christ. 2. But what blessings are these? In vs4-14, Paul shows us 4 areas where God's mighty power has blessed us in Christ. 4-6, God's Blessing of Election: Here Paul highlights how God has blessed by electing/choosing us. Vs4 highlights God's act of choosing us. Vs5-6 highlights how this happened and for what purpose. 1. In vs4, we have the act, the sphere of action, the time of action, the purpose of action, and what moved the action. 1. The act. He chose us. This means to choose to elect. It is a choice. And often implies a favourable attitude toward what is being chosen. This is the aorist tense. In other words, this is a fact, it happened! 2. The sphere. God chose us in the sphere of Christ. God chose us, where did He choose us? He chose us in Christ. 3. The time. God chose us before the creation of the world. Paul is stressing that God's choosing us happened before creation. 4. The purpose. God chose us that we be holy and blameless before Him. That = present tense. That we might have be continually holy and blameless in His judgement. God's goal was that we would be acceptable in His sight when He judges us. 5. What moved the action? God chose us in the sphere of love. The only thing that moved God to elect/choose us is His love. 1. Paul is equating God's election with God's blessing. Paul wants us to praise/bless God because God has blessed us in choosing us. Summary: God's love for us for Jesus' sake moved God to choose us from eternity to be holy when He judges us. Application => Praise. 5-6, How/Purpose: For what purpose did God elect us? 1. He predestined us. This means decide beforehand, putting a fence around something. Aorist - It happened/fact. 2. For adoption. God put a fence around us for the purpose of "legal adoption". The quality of this adoption is being stressed. God's election marked us off as His children/heirs. 3. Through = means, how this even was made possible. We were marked out to be children through Jesus Christ. Christ = Saviour/Anointed. 4. For Him = God's possession. God marked us off to be His very own.

5. according to the desire of His will = In line with. God's action as marking us off as His own is right in line with His desire. It was fun/pleasing to God to choose you. This was His will. Summary: Through Christ's saving work - and moved by His own well-considered good pleasure, God marked us out to be His very own. Application ==> we are His children (Praise!), What is the purpose of all of this? (vs6). 1. To he praise of His glorious grace. Different word for praise. It is different word for praise than we seen so far. It is highlighting our response. We are to praise God for His glorious grace. 2. which He kindly bestowed on us = shown kindness/grace. Praise God for His glorious grace which He graced us with. It is aorist tense. It happened. This grace came to us in the beloved (Jesus). Summary: His marvellous grace, poured out on us only because of his beloved, had as its goal to move us to praise him. Election is a confusing Doctrine because we can not figure out how God elected us, since this is a manner that God did entirely in His grace. We think then God logically that God must have chosen people to go to hell. That is a doctrine of Logic, not a doctrine of the bible. When we try to reason this out it becomes quite confusing. But on the other hand, it is not confusing but clear. God chose us, marked us out, put a fence around us before the world began. For the believer this is comforting and assuring. There is not question about our salvation. It is assuring because it was entirely by grace, we didn't do this. It brings us to our knees to thank God. In vs7-10, We come to the 2nd blessing of God. God redeemed us. The emphases is shifting from election, to the one who made all of this possible. Paul is now highlighting how it was only through Jesus, and he does this by focusing on Jesus' work of redemption. 1. Vs7, In him we have redemption. Redemption = ransom. It is a condition of imprisonment, slavery, captivity which was released by paying a price. We have this ransom in Christ. have is present tense. We have this continually. 2. Through His blood. His death was the price that was paid. It is explained by Paul as the forgiveness of our trespasses. Jesus death paid the ransom price which sent away our sins (forgiveness). This is how we were set free. This was according to the riches of his grace. God's grace is what caused this to happen. Summary: The one through whom our election was made possible is Jesus. In His unlimited Grace He paid the price of His blood to set us free from sin. In this way He made forgiveness our continuing possession. (no one can take it away from us). 2nd Blessing = Redemption, The price (blood), The cause (grace), ours every day = Praise Him! Vs8-10. But this grace in Redemption does not stop here. It not only gives us the forgiveness of our sins, but makes us apart of everything God is doing. It makes us apart of God's plan. This is what we see in vs8-10. God's plan in Christ. To use a simpler picture, In God's plan He rescued the Jews from Egypt in the exodus, but God's plan extended further, even into the promised land. We have been rescued in God's plan, redeemed, but God's plan goes further than that. What is this plan, we see it in vs10 bring together everything in Christ, the things in heaven and the things on earth.. The early church fathers had a lot to say about this. They spoke about God's plan of summing up or transforming everything in Christ. Not only rescuing us, but rescuing everything out of corruption. God setting right everything that had gone wrong as a result of sin. An easy picture would be Rev21 Heb12. New heavens, New earth, New bodies, New creation. United with the Lord for all eternity. The fullness of times in vs10 refers to the birth of Jesus. When Jesus was born, God has started doing this. Summary: God has shown His grace to us, making known to us His plan of bringing together everything in Christ. The redemption of all of creation. Application ==> Praise. 11-12, The Calling of the Jews: Paul in vs11-12, speaks about the Jews we. He is showing us God's mighty power in calling the Jews. The Jews were also chosen, predestined beforehand according to God's plan and the purpose of His will. This was so they too would give God praise. They having been the first to hope in Christ. 13-14: The Sealing of the Gentiles: 13,The verb of this sentence is you were sealed. Paul is now talking about the Gentiles you. They were also make apart of God's plan by being sealed with God's Spirit. God sealed them with His Spirit. The Spirit is

the seal. Hearing refers to Paul preaching of the gospel. They heard/believed/sealed. These things all happened at the same time. Paul preached, they heard/believed/sealed. A seal is a mark of ownership. Think of how an animal is branded or marked by a seal. God's sealing us with His Holy Spirit is a mark that we are His. It is His claim of ownership. Vs14, the Holy Spirit is the guarantee or down payment of our possession. Possession = inheritance, not earned, family connection, future promise. For the deliverance = until the actual redemption - when our body is finally set free from the world and trials. Why? God sealed the Gentiles for the purpose of praising Him

Summary: God seals us with His Holy Spirit until His plan centring in and carried out by Christ reaches it's final stage. The Holy Spirit serves as a guarantee that we are God's possession until God finally sets us free from this world to receive our inheritance. Conclusion: We studied a lot today. But we saw Paul overcome with Praise towards God. He wanted us to praise Him too. He brought before us 4 reasons to praise Him, 1. He elected us, 2, He redeemed/ransomed us, 3. He called (the Jews), 4. He Sealed (the Gentiles). All of these reasons are there to brings us to our knees and praise God for His glorious grace which He has shown towards us. Paul wants us to know that all of these blessings are because of God mighty GRACE and they come to us IN CHRIST. Because of God's grace to us in the sphere/circle of Christ, we have been blessed with all of these blessings!